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Three Centuries of Academic Geography in Russia

  • The 300th Anniversary of the Russian Academy of Sciences
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Abstract

Academic geography is one of the most demanding sciences in Russia. Over the 300 years of its development, it has covered a long way: the results obtained in numerous expeditions by generations of researchers contributed to the formation of a single geopolitical space of the country, the liquidation of blanks on the map of Northern Eurasia, and the mobilization of resources for the development of the economy. The academic geography of the 21st century, characterized by features of a worldview science, strives to respond effectively to the most topical modern challenges and to create, based on the latest research methods, the foundations for the future rational spatial development of Russia. This article traces the evolution of ideas, methods, and schools of geography in the Russian Academy of Sciences.

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Notes

  1. In 1763, Lomonosov proposed compiling an Economic Lexicon that would list in alphabetical order all the goods produced in Russia with their description and indication of places and volumes of production and methods of delivery to the buyer in cases where the product was produced for sale. Unfortunately, during his lifetime, this idea of his was not implemented, but the approach itself was later used in economic geography [13].

  2. Triangulation is a method to create a network of control geodetic points, as well as this network itself. It consists in the geodetic construction on the ground of a system of points forming triangles, in which all angles and lengths of some base sides are measured.

  3. The author of this article worked for two years in the organizing committee of the congress under the leadership of Academician I.P. Gerasimov, Professors Yu.V. Medvedkov, A.M. Grin, A.P. Gorkin, etc.

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Funding

This article was supported within the framework of a State Assignment of the RAS Institute of Geography, project no. FMGE-2019-0007.

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  1. Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

    A. A. Tishkov

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Translated by B. Alekseev

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RAS Corresponding Member Arkadii Aleksandrovich Tishkov is Chief Researcher and Head of the Laboratory of Biogeography at the RAS Institute of Geography.

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Tishkov, A.A. Three Centuries of Academic Geography in Russia. Her. Russ. Acad. Sci. 93, 71–82 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1019331623030048

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